I'm sure the 2002 ThinkPad would work with an external monitor, but with the single core Pentium III processor, it takes too long to boot or do anything complicated.

If playing soft synth sounds, I'm afraid the latency would be too much for me.

And when playing with a half dozen or so synths at the same time, latency becomes a big issue. Most hardware synths run at 5 or 6 ms latency. There is no consistency with softsynths. One could be a tenth of a second, another almost half a second, and there is no way I'm going to tweak the tracks, ppm by ppm until the both play at the same time. Multiply that by six.

On stage I use the machines for 2 things, play the backing tracks I create myself, or display the words, music notation or both.

With over 550 songs in our 'book', the newer ones aren't memorized yet, so I need to glance at the music and/or words.

And for those songs we haven't played in a long time, that first glance is usually enough to jog the memory.

And also, in the middle of a song, even while you may be singing or playing the sax/guitar/windsynth someone might come up and request a "Happy Birthday" or another song, jerking me out of 'the zone'. A few glances at the music can help me find my place in the backing track and get back to the business of performing.

I never understood why people come up in the middle of a song to say something. I guess they don't understand it's like coming up to the podium while someone is in the middle of a paragraph in his/her speech and asking a question.

We forgive them for they know not what they do wink

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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